A Typical Day at the 3rd Elementary School of Stavroupoli

After a few more visits, we have settled into a natural routine. My day starts with morning recess. This is the most social part of the day since the students love to stand around with us in the courtyard and practice their English. Martin usually plays basketball with the boys while the girls like to look through my traveling pictures and ask me questions about my life in America.

After recess, I spend one period with one of the English teachers in a 3^rd grade classroom. Here, I help the teacher by going over pronunciation with the students and conversing with them. Sometimes, she has songs and games for the class and I help regulate them, as they get very excitable and often start to yell. I’ve noticed that this is a challenge in the younger students’ classrooms. The teachers do not seem to have any rules about this chaos and just yell over the students. When this happens, I start to whisper at the students since I realize that my presence is the reason for their excitement. Then, they begin to quiet down because they can’t hear me otherwise. While my method does work, it makes me question the teacher’s system (or lack thereof) and why she does not implement a system of clear rules and consequences.

After English class, I go back downstairs to my CT’s room and work with one particular student with special needs, who for privacy reasons we will call Jim. While I have worked with other students as well, the past few weeks has been set up so that I can work extensively with Jim in mathematics. I really appreciate this layout because it helps me to form a bond with him and we have been working well together as we get more used to each other’s presence. Jim is also at an academic level where I can help him since I have learned numbers in Greek. One of the most gratifying moments I’ve had is when I realized that Jim had been practicing numbers in English so that he could be better able to communicate with me for our weekly lessons. It is definitely a challenge dealing with the language barrier, as I cannot always express my feelings or instructions to the students, but moments like these definitely make everything better.

Now, I only have one more visit left to the school and find that the time has flown by very quickly. Although the economic crisis has definitely hit the 3^rd School of Stavroupolis, the teachers work so hard to make the school a safe place for the students. While I do question some of their teaching methods, I cannot question the care that the teachers give to the students or the efforts they make to deal with the recent budget cuts the school has faced. I am very sad to be leaving such a great place!

Equality of Opportunity

            Looking through St. Andrew’s policies on pupil premiums, special needs and behavior, it is clear that this school finds it important that each child is given an equal opportunity, regardless of social class, disabilities or anything else.  St. Andrew’s is a very diverse school.  In my classroom alone, out of 20 students, there are four girls from Poland and one student from the Philippines.  All of these students have learned English as a second language, although they do speak very fluently and therefore there is no language barrier.  This is a similar pattern throughout the school.  There are also students that have learning disabilities or need special attention.  These students get a little more one on one attention from the teacher, and especially the teaching assistant. From the first day that I was in the classroom, I was immediately told about Rocco, who has some behavior problems and struggles with his attention, and Gaia, who is dyslexic and needs additional support on some of her work.  Since one of the first things that I was told about were these two students, I could see how important it is to the school to ensure that every person has an equal opportunity to learn and that their needs are being met, rather than having their behavior or intellectual disabilities holding them back.

            I’ve also noticed this past week that Dagmara has been give a white piece of paper that she keeps with me.  Dagmara is one of the four students from Poland, however, she struggles the most with speaking English.  While she can speak fluently, sometimes in class, she struggles to keep up with what Mr. Barry is saying because she must translate everything into Polish in her head.  When this happens, Mr. Barry set up a system in which she can just hold up the white piece of paper and he will slow down or go over what he just spoke about. This is a subtle way for her to get the help that she needs, without the rest of the class knowing that she does not understand.

            It is very clear throughout all of the policies that St. Andrew’s has that if a student requires extra help and has needs, the school will provide for his or her needs.  There are many qualified teachers and teaching assistants that will do their best to give every child the help that they need.  However, if the staff at the school is not meeting a student’s needs, it is their policy to reach outside the school and bring in additional support.

            The school also very actively promotes respect and tolerance for others.  In each classroom there is a list of “Golden Rules” stating things like “we are kind and helpful to others” and “we don’t hurt others”.  This is hung in the front of every classroom where each student is able to see and discussed with every class from day one.  When students are not being respectful and are misbehaving or being intolerant, there is a list of disciplines that are carried out.  It begins with a warning, but if the student continues this behavior, eventually they are sent to the head teacher and the parents are spoken to.  I have seen students that are constantly misbehaving in class and being disrespectful to either Mr. Barry or other students.  When this comes up on a regular basis, Mr. Barry has met with the students’ parents after school to discuss the matter with the parent, student and himself.

            Since the school is so diverse and all the students have been going to school together with the same group of students since the Foundation Stage, I have not noticed any instance in which the school had to deal with sexism, racism or other forms of discriminating behavior.  The school promotes equal opportunities for each individual and is very good about making each child feel welcome.  Since St. Andrew’s is such a small school and one in which every student and teacher knows each other, it is much more open and welcoming and therefore students tend to get along with each other much better.

Planning a Lesson

            This past week, Mr. Barry showed me a lesson-planning guide, with the goals and aims in each individual subject for the next week. In this chart was written what each subject was, what they have been learning the past week in that subject, what the goals and aims for this following week are, additional notes on how he wants to teach the new material and finally small notes on children that may require additional help in the subjects.  It was a very simple chart that was well organized, but it also included all of the important information that was needed in order to know the exact goals and aims of each unit. 

            The aims and objectives of the unit of work are all clear and achievable.  There are small goals for each lesson and each week and they show what the end result should be at the end of the unit.  Along with this, it shows what the students have worked on previously and how they are building off of it.  While it is a relatively simple chart and it only shows a week’s worth of activities, it is very helpful in seeing how the children are progressing in what they are learning. 

            Having aims and objectives for each week makes it more achievable.  Many times teachers will just have the end goals for a unit of work and then work up to the big goals.  However, with the small goals, children are able to slowly work up to these goals and the teacher is able to focus on specific aspects of the unit and narrow in on what they are teaching the students each day rather than having such broad aims.

            All the units have been designed to build on what has already been taught in order to ensure the continuity of learning.  While looking through the chart for the week, it shows what the students will be learning this week and underneath each goal for the week, it is written in on what they have already learned previously that will connect to the new work they are doing.  It is very important to connect each lesson to what has been previously learned in order for the students to build upon their understanding, rather than feel as though everything is disconnected. 

            One of my favorite parts of how Mr. Barry has written out the unit of work in these charts is that he includes notes on particular students.  Each student has a different style of learning and different areas of strengths and weaknesses.  He knows which subjects students are stronger in, as well as which subjects students struggle with.  He keeps track of each student’s progress.  I also noticed how he wrote ways in which students that had a greater strength in one subject would be able to assist other students that were weak in that area.  I think it was important to note these sorts of things in order to properly help each student.

            While he included which students would need help and which students were strong in each subject, it was not very detailed in terms of what teaching methods he would use.  There were no ideas for differentiating teaching while teaching to the entire class.  He knew which students needed the help and wrote in a few notes on how to help them after they were sent to work on their own or in groups, but little was talked about on how to differentiate during the whole class part of the lesson, which is a very important part of every lesson.

            There were also no notes on the resources that would be needed in order to meet the aims and objectives.  Nor were there any notes on how the students would be assessed on their learning.  While there were clear aims, I was unsure as to exactly how he wanted to assess the students to make sure they fully grasped the concepts.  I also still have not seen anything that related to homework outside of the classroom.  I am still unsure if they actually have homework in this school because there has been no talk about it in the classroom by the students or by Mr. Barry. 

            Overall, while there are still many pieces that should be included in a unit plan, Mr. Barry’s charts for each week helped break down the bigger units into smaller aims and goals.  This is important to narrow in on each child’s specific learning tasks for each lesson rather than have such broad topics that students never are sure what they should be focusing on.  I think it is important to have these structured unit lessons written out in order to maintain a clear, consistent and structured lesson structure in order to better help students learn.

Last Day at ISL :(

            Today was my last day at ISL, and I cannot believe how fast this semester has gone! It feels like just yesterday that I was waiting outside the school gates trying figure out how to get into the school, let alone find the main office.  Today in second grade, the students applied their knowledge of persuasive writing to their unit about fair trade.  They created advertisements for fair trade chocolate, and really enjoyed the activity.  I thought this was a very creative way for my cooperating teacher to assess their knowledge of fair trade, as well as their mastery of the elements of persuasive writing.  One thing that I noticed that my CT does is use a timer a lot.  I used to disagree with the timer because I thought it would make students anxious, but she uses it as an effective way to time lessons.  For example, she only gave her students 5 minutes to plan their advertisement before starting their final copy.  This paced the students and ensured that all of them had finished their advertisements before they had to leave for gym class.

            I had a great final conversation with my cooperating teacher, and realized how much I have learned in my short time at ISL this semester.  She told me a lot about different international teaching opportunities, and that there are American schools all over the world.  She has taught in Australia, China, and London, and really showed me the potential flexibility of a teaching career.  I never thought about teaching as something that you could do anywhere, but with the increasing prevalence of international schools our options as teachers are endless if we want them to be!  I always thought that I had to decide whether I wanted to teach in Massachusetts or New Jersey, Boston or New York City.  Going abroad and completing this practicum has opened my eyes to the incredible opportunities that we all have at our fingertips, and all of the amazing things that we can all do as teachers.  Completing my practicum at the International School of London has been an irreplaceable experience, and I feel so lucky to have had this amazing opportunity!